The World is Right Again....mostly

OK, lots to say tonight.

First and foremost - we have a new DVD player! Hooray! Ours went ka-put about a month ago and since then we have had a ghetto set up with a dvd player from UVSC (one of James' job perks is having access to all kinds of media-type toys) and our original DVD/VCR combo. In shopping for our new player, we decided to tell our VHS collection to "shove it" and we started our search for a DVR. Not just a DVR, but one that was a combo DVD player and possibly recorder. We weren't quite sure if such an animal existed nor what we would pay for one should it indeed exist. It turns out that it doesn't really exist, at least not in any electronic stores we frequent, and not for under $700 online. then miraculously I was combing through the Sunday paper ads and I found it - a Philips HDD DVD player/recorder. It turns out there is such a thing, just not called a DVR. Oh, and we got it for less than $300 (a steal). We went and got it for FHE. That's how we roll. We are beyond excited to start using it and it gives us a little extra motivation to replace the last few stragglers of our VHS collection.

Next - Blogger is letting us post pictures down the side again without distorting them! If anyone has noticed, the pictures down the side of our posts have been exactly the same since June. For some reason, every time we tried to add more, it distorted them by smushing them up lengttwise and stretching them widthwise. Not too flattering. So today I tried again just for the heck of it and it worked. We already had a bunch just chomping at the bit so I've added a bunch. Some of them are pretty old - from last year - but they needed to be seen by the world. So go ahead, scroll down the side without reading. We know you want to.

Now, for the "mostly" part of the post. When James was in DC, our ward had a neighborhood cleanup. Somehow, someone thought that our spare swamp cooler was clutter and chucked it. This is a $400 swamp cooler that was only used for 2 summers and came with us from our old apartment. It was covered and nicely located next to our storage unit in our backyard. I will also add that the swamp cooler was the only thing touched from our property. Seriously, even the actual garbage was still there. But not the cooler.

So I have been trying for a week to get a hold of the landlord who organized the whole shin-ding that left us with a $400 hole in our pocket. Finally I talked to the landlord today (after he never returned my calls) and it was not pretty. I kept my cool but he basically told me "so what" and that since he didn't PERSONALLY throw the cooler away he didn't care and wasn't going to do anything about it. Then he went on to lecture me for 10 minutes about how it was my fault because I shouldn't be storing my "junk" in the "parking lot." He wouldn't acknowledge the facts that
1) "junk" = nearly new, perfectly functioning swamp cooler and
2) "parking lot" = next to our own storage unit on our own property.

"Why wasn't it in the storage unit?"
"Because it was so big and nice that it wouldn't fit through the door on our tiny unit."
"Then you should have made other arrangements for it."
"What kind of arrangements can you make for a swamp cooler?"
"Or maybe you shouldn't own things that don't fit in your storage unit."

SERIOUSLY!!!!! The man was so condescending. Like because I live in a small apartment I don't have the right to own things. He then went on to try and make me feel guilty for not being part of the cleanup, although my husband was out of town so I was home with a toddler. "Other moms were there, they had their kids in strollers." Well that's great for them. I didn't want to take my 15 month old out in the rain to pick up the garbage behind the apartments of drug users/dealers. Especially when my child will stay in her stroller for exactly 45 seconds before she is whining to get out!

What an idiot (I am seriously censoring myself for this family site). So I kept my cool until about 1 second after I hung up. Then I screamed in rage and frustration. No obscenities, of course. Those came later. Oh and I balled for like half an hour. Again, tears of complete and absolute rage. And because this idiot made me feel like less of a person for where I live all while adopting this self righteous attitude about all the good he does for the neighborhood. I hate to burst his bubble, but the garbage that was raked up from a neighboring property was replaced with new refuse within a week. What a saint. For a while I was contemplating writing him a letter but knew that it wouldn't do any good. I think instead I will channel my emotions into a letter to our landlord, thanking her for being the exact opposite of this pompous moron. It's probably a little healthier (emotionally, mentally) for me as well. BREATHE!

And the pictures? They are from my mom's visit at the beginning of the month. I have been meaning to get them up here for so long but just haven't. So since this post had no pictures to go with it and it was REALLY long, I figured I'd spice it up with some unrelated photogs. We took my mom to Temple Square and got to see the tabernacle for the first time since it was renovated. Also there is a great new children's section at the Church History Museum. Oh, and my mom is a dishes maniac. Every time I turned around she was washing something. Zoe was in heaven. OK, so was I. Miss you and love you mom!